News

Victim and Perpetrator

The case of Amanda Spencer, 22, Sheffield is being widely reporting in the media as she is accused of luring girls into a life of ‘prostitution.’
Amanda denies almost 40 charges against her relating to Child Prostitution (legal term) between 2006 and 2011. Amanda is accused of grooming young girls when she herself was a teenager and facilitating child sexual offences.
The trial has heard how Amanda Spencer groomed young people on the streets of Sheffield due to their vulnerability, one as young as 10 years old. Amanda used drugs and alcohol to form friendships and then introduced them to exploitation.

The Jury has been told that Amanda Spencer had grown up in the care system, like the majority of her victims and could identify with the challenges the young women she befriended faced.

At Basis Training and within our Isis project- we’ve been concerned for some time around the complex relationship between some victims and perpetrators. Could it be the case that Amanda herself was once a victim of Child Sexual Exploitation who slipped through the net and is now not only a perpetrator but a victim aswell?